Theoretical cosmologist at Caltech, author and blogger Dr. Sean M. Carroll invited Matt and Andy to his Pasadena office this week to lend some insight into his areas of expertise, including: Being the house cosmologist on a paleontologogical dig! Dark matter! Defying what you thought you knew about the conservation of energy! The fixed density of dark energy! What happens a quadrillion years from now! Boltzmann brains! You might not have existed before this very instant! The arrow of time! Entropy! The second law of thermodynamics! We are the creamy tendrils in a universal cup of coffee! Consulting on movies like Thor and Tron: Legacy! Imposing boundaries on superheroes! Another blow to new age-y quantum BS! Multiple universes!

Comedian Virginia Jones (twitter.com/badiniadones) made a name for herself in Portland before heading to Los Angeles, and she joins fellow Portland transplant Auggie Smith (twitter.com/auggiesmith) this week to help Matt and Andy dive headfirst into: More vegan goth discussion! Punctuating your punchlines! The world's worst comedy show sound guy! A stranger interrupts the show to take a shower! Academic decathlons! Virginia and Andy's trivia prowess! Making things levitate using sound waves! The Flaming Lips parking lot experiment! Is Brooks a hickster? A blue planet that rains glass! David Bowie's waist size! The Hot Jupiters dance troupe! Controlling stem cells with magnets! A new Neptune moon!

Matt Kirshen takes Probably Science on the road this week for a live taping at Convergence Con (convergence-con.org) featuring The Physics of Superheroes' own Dr. James Kakalios, Minneapolis comedian Tommy Ryman (@tommyryman) and Dan Schlissel from Stand Up Records (@StandUpRecords). Dr. Jim is a professor of experimental physics at the University of Minnesota, and was both a scientific consultant, and a DVD extra feature on the Watchmen movie. This week's episode gets into superconductors, solid state physics, things with "nano" in the title, telescopic eyes, quantum computing, and how to transport science on a boat.